UFC 28 – High Stakes

UFC 28

UFC 28: High Stakes was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on November 17, 2000 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

UFC 28 marked the first UFC event to be sanctioned by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, held under the newly formed “Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts”.[1] Hence, the event was held in New Jersey, the first UFC event to be held in a northern state since UFC 7. Under the new set of rules, this was the first event requiring competitors to wear trunks, gloves and shoes (and no other attire), with five-minute, judged rounds.[2] The new rules also introduced new strict weight classes, resulting in the first and only UFC Super Heavyweight bout ever, between Josh Barnett and Gan McGee.[3] The first UFC Bantamweight bout took place at UFC 26 in June 2000.

The event was headlined by the return of former Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture, who had relinquished his title in 1998 to return to competitive wrestling and because of contract disputes—and he regained his championship belt by defeating Kevin Randleman. UFC 28 also features the first UFC appearances of Andrei Arlovski, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Josh Barnett, and Gan McGee, and Matt Hughes’s twin brother, Mark Hughes.

While there were 5,000 tickets sold — a sellout — the event had a small pay-per-view reach.[2] UFC 28 was the sixth straight UFC event to never see home video or DVD release, as their parent company SEG was nearing bankruptcy. UFC 28 was the last UFC event held by SEG in the US, and following UFC 29 in Japan, SEG sold the UFC to current owners Zuffa LLC.